Contributor
MAYWOOD | A mural honoring acclaimed singer-songwriter and Maywood native John Prine will soon be featured at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Square.
In July, Big Wall Sign & Mural announced that artist and musician Jon Langford would design the mural, with work starting this week. The artwork will appear on the north exterior wall of the Old Town School’s headquarters at 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Square, Chicago.
The mural is expected to still be underway during the Square Roots Festival, taking place from Friday, July 10, through Sunday, July 12.
“Festival attendees will have a special chance to see the mural come to life while enjoying one of the city’s leading celebrations of music, art, and community,” Big Wall Sign & Mural said in a news release.
Prine grew up in the west suburb of Maywood, and his ties to the Old Town School of Folk Music stretch back to the early 1960s, when the school was still new and Prine was just a teenager.
“When Prine was about 14 and living in Maywood, his older brother Dave, inspired by the American folk revival, taught him a few chords and brought him to the Old Town School, then in a storefront at 333 W. North Ave.,” wrote Old Town School marketing director Dave Zibell.
At the Old Town School, Prine honed his craft and performed for some of his earliest audiences, Zibell wrote.
After serving in the U.S. Army, Prine worked as a mail carrier and spent his free time at the Old Town School, published reports note.
In 1968, the Old Town School relocated to The Aldine Hall, a Romanesque Revival building at 909 W. Armitage Ave. in Lincoln Park—still used as a secondary site today. Nearby, the folk club The Fifth Peg became a regular spot for Prine, who told the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot that he first played his song “Same Stone” there at an open mic and soon was performing there a couple of times a week.
One night, film critic Roger Ebert happened to catch one of Prine’s performances at The Fifth Peg.
“At the time, Prine was a 23-year-old mailman who had been performing his original songs every Thursday night for about two months,” according to Prine’s website. “Ebert wrote a glowing review for the Chicago Sun-Times, essentially launching Prine’s music career.”
Atlantic Records released Prine’s self-titled debut album in 1971. He went on to record several more albums for Atlantic before joining David Geffen’s Asylum Records in 1978, then co-founding his own label, Oh Boy Records, in Nashville in 1982, according to published reports.
Prine won four Grammy Awards (two posthumously) out of 13 nominations, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone noted that he explored genres “from hard country to rockabilly to bluegrass,” and liked to say he occupied a space between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
In 2009, Rolling Stone quoted Bob Dylan as saying, “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.”
Throughout his life, Prine maintained a close relationship with the Old Town School.
“Over the years, Prine always returned to Chicago and the Old Town School for concerts, benefits, and special events,” Zibell wrote.
Prine died on April 7, 2020, at age 73. He was one of the early casualties of COVID-19.
“Prine’s artistic roots were planted at the Old Town School, and installing this unique mural is a way to honor the man and songwriting legend,” Zibell wrote.